Unifor seeks to unionize Toyota and Honda plants

The Honda of Canada Manufacturing plants in Alliston, Ontario are built on 450 acres of land and have their own recreation centre. The centre is equipped with a full NHL-sized hockey arena, physical fitness areas, a baseball diamond, and volleyball and tennis courts. The two main plants in Alliston have an annual capacity of 390,580 vehicles per year.

Handout, Honda Canada Inc.

Dias heading to Japan to gather union information

by
Grace Macaluso, The Windsor Star | September 16, 2013

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Bolstered by the UAW’s international campaign to organize Volkswagen workers in the United States, Unifor president Jerry Dias is heading to Japan in early December to meet with his union counterparts in Tokyo as part of a renewed bid to unionize Toyota and Honda workers in Canada.

“It’s incredible,” Dias said Friday. “In reality, (United Auto Workers president Bob King) has reached out to the global trade union movement and is working closely with the IG Metall union in Germany. If he is successful in organizing one of the transplants, it should open door for the rest of them.”

Within a year, Volkswagen workers in Tennessee could be represented by both the UAW and a German-style workers council, with negotiations for a first collective-bargaining agreement underway, King told the Detroit Free Press’s Alisa Priddle.

“A majority of VW workers at the Chattanooga plant have signed cards saying they want UAW representation.”

In Germany, IG Metall labour representatives sit on the Volkswagen supervisory board and have applied pressure on the company to work with their UAW colleagues in the U.S. Dias said he plans to talk union strategy with the Japanese Automobile Workers union.

“We’re going to talk about how we do this. The leadership has to play a role. The UAW is doing that with the Germans, and the Japanese are starting to come on board.

“There will be a lot more organizing going on within the global trade movement to deal with global companies.” Dias said he will seek “neutrality agreements” with Toyota and Honda that would allow Unifor to enter Canadian plants and meet with and recruit workers. If successful, Unifor would gain about 11,000 members, said John Aman, Unifor’s director of organizing.

Past organizing drives at Honda and Toyota plants have failed, in part, because the automakers have matched wages and benefits negotiated at the bargaining table by Unifor and the Detroit Three carmakers, said Dias.

“The hypocrisy is that Honda and Toyota are fully organized in Japan,” he said. “They have decent relations with the Japanese union. Why is it they do everything humanly possible to keep unions out of their North American operations? They shouldn’t be so damn inconsistent.”

Aman said about 80 per cent of Toyota’s operations worldwide are unionized.

Over the last year, the union has been waging another attempt at organizing Toyota workers, said Aman. “We have significant support,” although he would not say what percentage of workers have signed membership cards.

“We have a strong base of support and are still working with some of the employees,” he said. “It’s a significant amount and we can see some success in the future months.”

The union would require signed membership cards from at least 40 per cent of workers to apply for a certification vote, he said.